Bradford Lee Smith[1] (born January 17, 1959)[2] is an American attorney and business executive who became vice chairman of Microsoft in 2021, and president in 2015. He previously was a senior vice president and general counsel from 2002 to 2015.
Smith met his wife Kathy Surace-Smith while they were undergraduates at Princeton University. Smith studied in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and graduated with a B.A. in 1981 after completing a 199-page long senior thesis titled "The Politics of Refugees: The Development and Promotion of International Refugee Law".[7] Smith and his wife graduated from Princeton together in 1981 and both continued to Columbia Law School. They married in 1983, and spent the school year of 1983-1984 studying international law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Switzerland, before returning to Columbia to graduate in 1985.[6][8][9] Surace-Smith is vice president and general counsel of Seattle biotech company NanoString Technologies.[9] They have a son, born in 1992, and a daughter born in 1995.[6]
Brad Smith meeting with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in 2016
Smith joined Microsoft in 1993 and oversaw the resolution of the company's antitrust cases.[11] For three years he led its Legal and Corporate Affairs team in Europe, then five years as deputy general counsel, before being named general counsel in 2002[6][10] and senior vice president.[12] As Microsoft's general counsel, Smith worked as lawyer, politician, and diplomat.[6] In 2001, Microsoft had just settled United States v. Microsoft Corp., a four-year antitrust battle about bundling the Internet Explorer web browser with the Microsoft Windows operating system.[4] Smith's application for the general counsel position in late 2001 included a PowerPoint presentation of a single slide that said: "time to make peace." Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer agreed.[4] Smith has been described as conciliatory toward competitors and regulators.[4] He led negotiations to settle cases with several of Microsoft's competitors, including AOL Time-Warner, Sun Microsystems, and Be Inc., paying $5 billion to plaintiffs, aiming for win-win resolutions, and garnering praise from their chief counsels.[4][6][10] Smith also oversaw negotiations with the European Commission over antitrust accusations, meeting foreign leaders, lobbying, and settling most issues in 2010.[6]
Internally, Smith pushed for diversity within the company's legal division, making executive bonuses dependent on Microsoft and associated law firms' increasing employment of racial minority, women, and LGBT employees, and committing pro bono hours for immigrants.[6][13] In 2008, the goals were not met, and Microsoft executives donated their bonuses to charity; the diversity goals were met every subsequent year.[13] In 2013, the National Law Journal named him one of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America".[14]
By 2014, Smith was the longest running member of Microsoft's top leadership, and considered "a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large,"[15] winning plaudits for diplomacy from State Department officials like Anne-Marie Slaughter and Stuart Eizenstat.[6] He filed four different lawsuits defending customer data against the US government from 2013 to 2016[16] and was a noted supporter of Apple Inc. when the FBI demanded access to a locked iPhone.[17] He was able to organize a Reform Government Surveillance coalition including rivals such as Google, Yahoo!, and Apple, Inc. to support Microsoft in Microsoft Corp. v. United States, an ongoing case initially filed in 2013 in which the company challenges the right of the United States to get access to a user email stored in Ireland.[15]
Smith was promoted to president and chief legal officer of Microsoft in 2015 by CEOSatya Nadella, becoming the first President of Microsoft since Richard Belluzzo in 2002.[10] In these roles, Smith is responsible for Microsoft's corporate, external, and legal affairs, and is also the firm's chief compliance officer.[18] Within three months in his new position, Smith announced the launch of Microsoft Philanthropies, a branch of the company dedicated to donating money and services to the public good.[19] In the following two years, Microsoft Philanthropies donated tens of millions in grants to education and refugee organizations, and hundreds of millions in Microsoft Azurecloud computing services to nonprofits and researchers.[20]
Smith chairs the nonprofit Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), which he co-founded with actress Angelina Jolie in 2008.[37] KIND provides pro bono free legal support to unaccompanied immigrant children who are facing deportation in eight of the largest US cities.[38] It is funded by Microsoft and donated hours from law firms and corporate departments across the country.[39]
From 2009 to 2016, Smith was the chair and a founding board member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, an organization of corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners dedicated to diversity in the legal profession.[40][41]
He shares other charity work with his wife, Kathy Surace-Smith. They chaired the King County, WashingtonUnited Way campaign for 2011, raising $120 million.[46] They are also prominent supporters of their alma mater Columbia Law School: Surace-Smith is a trustee of Columbia University and co-chairs the school Annual Fund;[47] in 2004 the couple established the Smith Family Opportunity Scholarship, which helps less represented international students attend the school; and in 2017 they became co-chairs of the school fundraising campaign, and made a $1.25 million gift for the Columbia Human Rights Clinic.[48] In February 2022, the Smiths donated an additional $5 million to the Human Rights Clinic.[49]
References
^Directory of Corporate Counsel (Mid-Year ed.). Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. 2018. p. 899. ISBN978-1454889250.
